This website is a collection of my writings which primarily deals with issues of political and socio-economic issues in the Caribbean.
It also contains links to important resources on the region and it's people.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Welcome Back? Martelly Returns to Widespread Protests

Given the waves of anti-government protests which have recently
engulfed Haiti, one would have thought that Haitian President Michel
Martelly would have found refuge from controversy while visiting the
United Nations General Assembly in New York. Yet this was not the case.
While the past several weeks have seen protests spread throughout Haiti,
from Port au Prince to Cap Haitien, Gonaives and La Cayes, they have
even followed Martelly to Brooklyn, New York.

The protest, consisting of several hundred Haitians marching to
Brooklyn College, where they demonstrated across the street from the
Walt Whitman auditorium, the site of Martelly’s speaking engagement. The
primary reason for the protest had to do with allegations of corruption
due to mismanagement of funds raised by a controversial tax on money
transfers and phone calls. Marlène Jean-Noel explained that
“One month after he came to power, Martelly put a $1.50 tax on every
money transfer Haitians send back to their families in Haiti. He also
put a 5 cent per minute tax on phone calls. You can’t call Haiti
anymore. When you do, your calling card finishes almost immediately. And
what does he do with the money? He gives it to his wife and his son to
do baloney projects. Meanwhile, the Haitian masses are dying of hunger.”

The purpose of the new tax—which was implemented in June 2011 but not
presented to the Haitian parliament for ratification—was to raise funds
for an accessible national education program which would waive all of
the registration fees for primary students. At the time it was hailed as
an innovative way for cash strapped Haiti to raise funds for much
needed public services and by September 2011 it was announced that the
fund had raised roughly $28 million. However, the promise of the program
was short lived, as Martelly came under fire from Digicel Director
Dennis O’Brien, who requested an audit of the National Education Fund in
January after hearing that Governor of the National Bank of Haiti,
Charles Castel, announced that only $2 million remained in the fund. The man responsible for administering the failed National Education Fund was then Foreign Minister, and current Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe.

Inside the venue at Brooklyn College, Martelly wasn’t shaken by the
allegations of corruption related to the failed National Education Fund
but revealed his impressive level of denial by stating that “Rebuilding
Haiti is not just about the physical buildings, it’s about having the
people who can lead and manage the projects… It’s about the freedom of
the people. How can someone be free if he can’t eat… if he doesn’t have
access to health care, to a good education?”

In an effort which would only prove his critics right and fuel more
allegations about the mismanagement of funds, Martelly flew to the
General Assembly in New York with an enormous entourage consisting of 78 people.

Back in Haiti, there is no single identifiable cause of the
widespread protests. A variety of groups are taking to the street to
voice their frustration with the previously mentioned ineffectiveness
and corruption of the Martelly administration and as well as to voice
outrage stemming from an emerging judicial crisis and rising food
prices.

The judicial crisis began on September 27 when former Chief
Prosecutor for Port-au-Prince, Jean Renel Senatus, stated that Haiti's
Justice Minister Jean Renel Sanon fired him for his refusal to execute
an order to arrest 36 government opponents. Among the government opponents were
Newton St. Juste and Andre Michel, who have respectively brought up
corruption complaints aimed at the President, his family, and members of
his administration. Human rights attorney Mario Joseph was also amongst
those targeted for illegal arrest and detention. In response to this,
the Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), an
inter­na­tional alliance of pro­gres­sive human rights lawyers, jurists,
law stu­dents and legal work­ers, issued a statement
which denounced the move and expressed deep concern for the safety of
Joseph—known for his tireless representation of political dissidents and
the poor.

La Cayes and Cap Haitien have both been the site of popularly
supported strikes in September and again this week. In Gonaives,
protests erupted due to the poor conditions of the local university on
September 24. On October 1, thousands of supporters of former President
Jean Bertrand Aristide marched through Port au Prince. For more
information and analysis on these and many more protests please read
this article by Dady Chery.

In regards to the rising food prices, AlterPresse reported that
“Since August the price of a 25-kilogram sack of rice has risen from
900 to 1,150 gourdes ($21.35 to $27.28), the residents said; a sack of
flour went from 1,100 to 1,300 gourdes ($26.10 to $30.84); and a gallon
of cooking oil rose from 300 to 450 gourdes ($7.12 to $8.07).” Rising
food prices toppled the Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis
in 2008, and unless meaningful steps are taken to secure the local food
supply and lower prices, given all the additional controversies, it is
not an unrealistic prediction that something similar could happen again.

Former Presidential candidate and head of the Assembly of Progressive
National Democrats (RNDP by its French acronym), Mirlande Manigat,
highlighted the importance of the protests, stating that
“These developments show that now the people are no longer just
talking; they are acting.” As such, it is a very real possibility that
the Haiti that President Martelly returned to on Sunday is different
from the one he left. Perhaps he will take the protests as a wake up
call. It remains to be seen if Martelly will actually seek to address
the issues or suppress them along with the protestors. But from all
appearances, whether Martelly chooses to solve the problems the people
are demanding or not, the people are wide awake.

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